The Journal of Negro History, Volume 8, 1923Various
History
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 8, 1923
Various
African Americans -- Periodicals
were wide variations in the standards of different tribes, we are
abundantly justified in assuming that the ethics of the Africans was
as susceptible to improvement as our own. The more advanced standards
were prophetic of still more advanced ones.
II. ART
What a man admires is an infallible index to his innermost soul.
Whether in the adornment of some temple or the crude markings upon
primitive pottery, man is ever striving to express himself in his
labors. Strange to say that though the passion for self-expression
is dominant in human activities, the art of expression is still in
its infancy. We may divide human artifacts into two classes, namely,
those of utility and those of aestheticism. That the latter has a
form of utility we should in no case deny but as to the utility of
aesthetics we deem it beside the point here to discuss. When we use
the term "art" in this treatise it will have the specific meaning of
the attempt on the part of man to express his emotions; or his attempt
to satisfy the aesthetic cravings in the soul. That there are such
cravings is a fact which is universally conceded. That there are many
evidences of such attempts among all civilized lands none will deny.
That man's attempts at artistic expression is a criterion of his
civilization is an historic fact. There can be no civilization without
its concomitants of aesthetics. Man seeks beauty for beauty's sake,
and he alone of the animals gives evidence of such propensity to a
pronounced degree. In song, upon canvas, and in marble, humanity has
poured forth its innermost soul of sentiments inexpressibly sublime.
There is no passion, no object that has not at some time inflamed the
soul and moved some mortal to the abode of the gods.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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